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Are Investors Undervaluing Wabash National (WNC) Right Now?

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Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

Considering these trends, value investing is clearly one of the most preferred ways to find strong stocks in any type of market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

On top of the Zacks Rank, investors can also look at our innovative Style Scores system to find stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will want to focus on the "Value" category. Stocks with high Zacks Ranks and "A" grades for Value will be some of the highest-quality value stocks on the market today.

One company value investors might notice is Wabash National (WNC - Free Report) . WNC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 8.75, while its industry has an average P/E of 19.82. Over the last 12 months, WNC's Forward P/E has been as high as 33.38 and as low as 8.35, with a median of 12.33.

We should also highlight that WNC has a P/B ratio of 2.48. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 2.80. Within the past 52 weeks, WNC's P/B has been as high as 3.29 and as low as 1.69, with a median of 2.24.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. WNC has a P/S ratio of 0.44. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.88.

Value investors will likely look at more than just these metrics, but the above data helps show that Wabash National is likely undervalued currently. And when considering the strength of its earnings outlook, WNC sticks out at as one of the market's strongest value stocks.


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